Crawley services may be cut if council's finances do not improve

Crawley councillors have been warned that cuts to services could be on the table if the borough’s finances don’t improve.

While leader Michael Jones said the council was ‘sailing a steady ship in very choppy waters’, he painted a somewhat depressing picture of what could be down the line if things did not pick up soon.

Speaking during a meeting of the full council on Wednesday (December 14) Mr Jones reported that a £500,000 gap in the council’s budget was expected in the next financial year, which would be plugged using reserves.

The shortfall the following year would be around £800,000.

He added: “This is not sustainable in the long run, so savings will have to be sought.

“Once those reserves are spent, they are gone and in future years we will have to look at efficiencies, new income or, as a last resort, cuts to services.

“I hope it won’t come to that and we will work very hard to avoid it.”

He told the meeting that the council would be writing to the government about the challenges faced when it came to dealing with homelessness – an issue which he said was ‘really impacting on us at the moment’.

Some 358 Crawley households are currently living in temporary accommodation, with the council’s homelessness team forecasting an overspend of £1.152m.

While it is hoped that homelessness numbers will fall in future years, the extra cost to the 2023/24 budget is £1.4m.

As for increasing the council’s coffers, he suggested that income from businesses moving into the new town hall could help – though he acknowledged that this could not be relied on.

Looking at council tax, Mr Jones said that increasing it by the maximum allowed would bring in an extra £57,000 – nowhere near enough to plug the budget gap.

The council is due to find out what its settlement from the government will be, though Mr Jones said he did not hold out much hope that it would be particularly good news.

He predicted that many councils would go under financially but was confident that would not be the case for Crawley.

He added: “I’m not complacent. We will look to do whatever we can to make sure that the finances are solid.”